


The Aerial Screw

by LJ_McKay



Category: Ever After (1998)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27763240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJ_McKay/pseuds/LJ_McKay
Summary: Leonardo presents a new invention to the court, but without funding it may never...get off the ground.
Relationships: Danielle de Barbarac/Prince Henry (Ever After)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	The Aerial Screw

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ancarett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancarett/gifts).



“I call it…the aerial screw!”

Leonardo removed the covering from his drawing with a flourish and a proud grin. Danielle smiled back as she surreptitiously stomped hard on Henry’s foot, turning his snicker into a yelp and a not-very-convincing coughing fit.

“What does it do?” she asked politely, though not without genuine interest. Leonardo’s presentations to the court were some of the highlights of her day.

“Why, highness, it allows a man to _fly_!”

Henry snorted, with derision rather than amusement this time. Danielle pinched him.

“I know what you’re thinking!” Leonardo exclaimed gleefully, seemingly taking no offense. “Mad Leonardo, talking about flying again! If man were meant to fly, God would have given him wings!”

“Well, I wouldn’t have said ‘mad,’” Henry admitted, smiling fondly.

“Sire, if man were not meant to imagine, why would God have given him a mind?”

“Or, indeed, woman,” Danielle interjected pointedly.

Leonardo bowed toward her. “Quite right, your highness.”

Henry was examining the drawing more closely, frowning thoughtfully as he took in the various notes and calculations in Leonardo’s neat—and Danielle thought rather beautiful—handwriting. (Unlike what Danielle had occasionally glimpsed in his private notebooks, which looked more like Arabic than Italian, Leonardo’s court presentations were always in perfectly legible French and Latin.)

“Would this actually work?” Henry asked, the laughter in his voice replaced by wonder.

“Well, that is the idea,” Leonardo chuckled. “But I should need to build it to truly know.”

“This could revolutionize travel,” Henry mused, “communication…warfare…” He spun toward the inventor. “What do you need?”

“Oh, I should think about 2,000 livres?”

“You shall have it,” Henry proclaimed.

“My love,” Danielle spoke up gently. “I am not sure the people will appreciate their taxes being spent on what may seem a royal folly.”

Henry’s brow furrowed, as it often did when she brought up “the people.” It had become less of a foreign concept to him that peasants and servants might have thoughts and feelings of their own, but he still struggled sometimes to see why the opinions of even the nobility should be considered before making royal decrees.

“Perhaps,” Danielle continued smoothly, “we could seek alternative funding for this prototype? If it is successful, replicating it will be more clearly in the kingdom’s interest and justifiable to the councilors of finance.”

“Yes, that’s true…” Henry mused, face still troubled.

“You could write to England,” she suggested. “Henry might like to be involved with something innovative to distract from his…troubles.”

Henry grimaced. “Indeed.” Danielle saw a glint appear in his eye and the corners of his mouth twitched in amusement as he continued, “I suppose you could say he’s had an _heirial screw_ -up.”

Danielle rolled her eyes and smacked his arm chidingly, but she was smiling. Leonardo blinked a few times and then let out an enormous guffaw.

“Well, I thank your highnesses for your support,” he said, wrapping his drawing again and preparing to depart. “I do hope your epistolary ventures are successful!” He bowed vaguely as he wandered out of the chamber, his thoughts doubtlessly already engaged on his next invention.

Henry turned to face his princess, taking her arms in his. “Do you really think Henry will want to send us money? For this?”

“It’s possible,” Danielle shrugged. “But I’ve got another idea, as well.”

“Oh?” He raised his eyebrows.

She smiled. “I don’t wish to get your hopes up. I will let you know if it seems promising.”

“You, milady,” he growled, “are a tease.”

“And you, sire,” she parried, “must still learn patience!”

“Damn your patience,” he sighed, grinning despite himself. He glanced around the empty audience chamber and lowered his voice. “Would the princess perhaps be interested in attempting an _heirial screw_ of her own?”

Heartbeat quickening, she leaned closer to whisper, “The prince knows he always takes me to new heights,” and took his earlobe gently in her mouth. His breath hitched and he pulled her against him, leaning down to kiss her neck where it emerged from the fabric of her gown.

“Time to go somewhere more private,” he mumbled into her shoulder. He seized her hand and they hurried from the audience chamber like the young lovers they still were.

* * *

_Estimada Princesa:_

_(May I still call you Princess? I realize that your marriage has stripped you of this title, but it is the one by which I have come to know you fondly, and furthermore, a wise man once told me that all girls are princesses. However, if it brings you pain rather than pleasure, I shall desist.)_

_How fare you and your fair Rodrigo? I do wish we could have attended the wedding, but I know you were not in a position to entertain many guests, let alone ones whose support of you might result in your father declaring war. I dream of a world where our daughters can marry who they please and, like their brothers, be perhaps seen as eccentric but by no means disinherited. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy our gift; it was painted by Signor da Vinci himself! (I have a copy done by my good friend Gustave, who is apprenticing with the master.)_

_Do you remember da Vinci, the artist some call mad but who is the kindest soul I have ever met in such a brilliant mind? (Perhaps more helpfully: big white beard, impish grin—and, yes, a rather mad look in his eyes.) Well, he has created—or hopes to create—a means for man to fly. ¿Puedes creerlo?_

_Unfortunately, it may not ever get off the ground—so to speak. While I am certain the treasury would finance the production of proven flying machines—the benefit to the realm is too great to be dismissed—we do not currently have the funds to produce a prototype. We have had to spend a considerable amount this year on a goodwill campaign introducing me to the nobility as a viable queen-to-be and not the downfall of France, and while my convincing Henry to subsidize crop rotations certainly helped with that, it did our coffers no favors._

_Best wishes to you and Rodrigo, and I do hope to visit one day after everything has calmed down for both of us._

_con cariño,_   
_Danielle_

  
_Chère Princesse:_

_By all means, continue to call me Princesa; it brings fond memories of you and your dear Henry, whom I still consider to have saved my life. Rodrigo and I owe you both an enormous debt! And we thank you, too, for the wedding gift, which is a truly imaginative and beautiful work of art. The way he has captured the light on both the scales and the wings of the fish, I sometimes swear I see it move. If anyone can create a flying machine, it is surely Signor da Vinci._

_Speaking of which, I find myself with a suitably royal dowry that my father felt obligated to provide, despite everything, but which Rodrigo and I are determined not to keep. I want no one to ever say Rodrigo loved me for my position or my wealth, and I want my parents to have no hold over me. Besides, it will annoy my father ever so much if I instead send the money to France._

_Rodrigo and I are very well, thank you. In fact, I hope you do not think me indelicate if I share that I may be taking to my chamber soon. This is somewhat bittersweet as I always imagined my mother being with me during this time, but that seems unlikely now. I think you of all people will understand this, and I feel I cannot speak of it to anyone else as they will say I bring bad luck by having negative thoughts._

_I hope you and Henry are as happy as we, and may God bless you with an heir soon. Please let me know what happens with Signor da Vinci’s flying machine!_

_avec toute mon amitié,_   
_Gabriela_

* * *

“Your majesties, may I present…the aerial screw!” Leonardo’s presentation had the same dramatic flair as a year previously, but this time it required several apprentices and a complicated series of ropes to sweep the cloth covering from the bulky invention. And this time, Danielle shared Henry’s smirk as she cradled little Francis Auguste. _Heirial screw_ , indeed.

“It requires four to operate,” Leonardo explained, rubbing his hands together as he surveyed his audience. “Who shall join me?”

Danielle thought it admirable that Henry managed not to look like an overeager student straining for a tutor’s attention, but she could feel him almost vibrating next to her as he said, ever so casually, “I suppose it is my royal duty.”

“Now, sire,” she couldn’t resist teasing him, “we cannot both attempt it at once, as any tragic accidents would leave poor Francis orphaned and the kingdom in regency, and as I am the one who secured the funding for its construction…”

“Disculpa,” Gabriela piped up. She expertly juggled Sperança, six months older than Francis and a very active infant. “As I am the one who actually provided the funding…”

“Oh, indeed,” Danielle agreed, putting on a very serious expression. “It would be only right to grant our financier the privilege.”

“Well, seeing as it is becoming a ladies’ trip,” the queen mother put in, “may I join?”

A chorus of “Oh, yes!” “¡Si, si!” and “Naturally, madam!” rose from Danielle, Gabriela, and Leonardo, while Henry looked from one to the other, his mouth opening and closing in his search for an argument.

Danielle let the moment linger before taking pity on the poor man, who looked as if his birthday had been canceled. “Oh darling, of course you may have the first go. But I shall most certainly have the second!”

He kissed her passionately, despite the presence of his mother, his former fiancèe, and several dozen courtiers who had come to see if Signor da Vinci’s machine would truly fly. A sharp whistle of approval came from the direction of Leonardo’s apprentices, and Danielle thought she recognized Gustave’s distinctive flair. Henry pulled back, blushing at his impulsive display, and tried to recover by giving Francis a fatherly kiss on the head.

"Thank you,” he murmured.

“You’re welcome,” she smiled, genuinely pleased for him. Leonardo had already made her wings once, and helped her to fly to undreamed of heights. She wanted Henry to have his chance.

“Well, your majesty, are you ready to fly?”

**Author's Note:**

> I have learned that “screw” as slang for sex dates from ca. 1725, at least in English (and while French has many creative euphemisms for sex, I’m not sure “visser” is among them—let alone “hèlice”). Since the movie itself includes some modern idioms (e.g. “money to burn,” “throne”), I hope you’ll forgive me playing with this anyway.
> 
> “All girls are princesses” is from A Little Princess (1995), whose protagonist shares enough similarities with Danielle (close relationship with widowed, more-or-less feminist father who encourages her love of literature and then “dies,” leaving her in the care of an abusive maternal figure) that I can believe this is something Auguste might have said to her. Granted, they were in a context with literal princesses so maybe not, but I still wanted to reference it. ;)


End file.
